Rush Likes NJ Governor Chris Christie

Chris Christie, New Jersey governor, has frozen spending. The state’s budget is in shambles. He has sliced into the school surpluses, the New Jersey transit subsidies. The Democrats are furious. They’re furious because he’s doing exactly what he promised he would do. This is the common sense we’ve been waiting for…. We were waiting for a leader with guts to heal the spending sickness that grips bureaucrats and big spenders in legislature after legislature after legislature. This is the kind of thing the tea party people are demanding.

And do I hear it at work! Nearly everyone there is scared of Governor Christie, especially since he’s begun to hone in on the state’s public employee pension system. Whatever Christie does, I’m still young enough to make adjustments for retirement, so I don’t fret too too much.

In fact, one just has to bring up Governor Christie’s logic that whereas the average public employee pays about $124,000 into the pension system, they will withdraw (when including pension salary and health benefits) roughly $3.3 million in their lifetime. That’s completely unsustainable (especially when the legislature borrows unspent money from that pension system for other pet projects!). I understand why Rush likes Christie — he’s making tough choices on how to constrain government spending, and he’s doing it transparently at present.

While obviously self-interested in keeping the status quo as static as possible, I’m also a realist: tiering, making the retirement age the same as everyone else, making the transition to 401k’s, trimming benefits or some mix of these points, whatever — I’d just prefer they do it soon so I can adapt!